Reduction in Discipline Referrals and Suspensions for All Students

Previous reports have documented that Illinois students with disabilities benefit equally when discipline problems are reduced schoolwide. Review of data from 2010-11 to 2012-13 confirms these earlier findings with a larger number of schools. In a sample of 166 Illinois elementary schools documenting a 10% reduction in office discipline referrals (ODRs) schoolwide, students with IEPs showed a 44% decrease in average ODRs from 2010-11 to 2012-13 while students without IEPs showed a 38.5% decrease. The relative risk ratio in 2011-12 for students with IEPs for ODRs was 0.952, indicating that students with IEPs in this sample are slightly underrepresented and are less likely to receive an ODR than students without an IEP.* Students with IEPs in these 166 schools also had similar reductions in out of school suspensions (OSS) with a decrease of 73.5% on average OSS from 8.71 per school in 2010-11 to 2.30 OSS per school in 2012-13, while students without IEPs showed a 54% decrease over the same three years. The risk ratio for students with disabilities in 2011-12 (0.952) indicates these students are actually less likely to receive an OSS than their non-disabledpeers.*

*2012-13 enrollment data for students with IEPs is not yet available. Risk ratio for 2012-13 will be calculated and shared as this data becomes available later this fall.